As happy prologues to the swelling act 18

Of the imperial theme.-I thank you, gentlemen.-
This supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill; cannot be good:-If ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 19
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings 20:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single 21 state of man, that function
Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is,

But what is not 22.

Ban.

Look, how our partner's rapt. Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance

Without my stir.

Ban.

may crown me,

New honours come upon him

Like our strange garments; cleave not to their mould,
But with the aid of use.

18 As happy prologues to the swelling act. So in the prologue to King Henry V.- "Princes to act,

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene."

19 Suggestion, i. e. temptation.

20 i. e. the presence of objects of fear.

So in The Tragedie of Croesus, by Lord Sterline, 1604:-
"For as the shadow seems more monstrous still

Than doth the substance whence it hath the being,
So th' apprehension of approaching ill

Seems greater than itself, whilst fears are lying."

21 By his single state of man, Macbeth means his simple condition of human nature. Single soul, for a simple or weak guileless person, was the phraseology of the poet's time. Simplicity and singleness were synonymous.

22 But what is not. Shakespeare has something like this sentiment in King Richard II.—

"Is nought but shadows

Of what is not."

Macb.

Come what come may;

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. Mach. Give me your favour :

My dull brain was wrought with things forgotten.
Kind gentlemen, your pains are register'd

Where every day I turn the leaf to read them—
Let us toward the king.—

Think upon what hath chanc'd: and, at more time,
The interim having weigh'd it 23, let us speak

Our free hearts each to other.

Ban.

Very gladly.

Macb. Till then, enough.—Come, friends. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONALBAIN, LENOX, and Attendants.

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are nota Those in commission yet return'd?

Mal.

My liege,
They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
With one that saw him die: who did report,
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons;
Implor'd your highness' pardon; and set forth
A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
Became him, like the leaving it; he died
As one that had been studied in his death1,

23 The interim having weigh'd it. The interim is probably here sel adverbially-"You having weighed it in the interim." • This is the reading of the second folio. The first has, " Or not."

1 Studied in his death is well instructed in the art of dying. Montaigne, with whom Shakespeare was familiar, says, "in my time, three of the most execrable persons that I ever knew, in all abominations of life, and the most infamous, have been seen to die very orderly and quietly, and in every circumstance composed even unto perfection."

To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd2,
As 'twere a careless trifle.

Dun.

There's no art,

To find the mind's construction in the face3:
He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.

Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.

O worthiest cousin!

The sin of my ingratitude even now

Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before,
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow

To overtake thee: would, thou hadst less deserv'd;
That the proportion both of thanks and payment
Might have been mine! only I have left to say,
More is thy due than more than all can pay.
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part
Is to receive our duties: and our duties

Are to your throne and state, children, and servants;
Which do but what they should, by doing every thing
Safe toward your love and honour 5.

"The behaviour of the thane of Cawdor corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate Earl of Essex, as related by Stow, p. 793. His asking the queen's forgiveness, his confession, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the scaffold, are minutely described by that historian." Steevens thinks that an allusion was intended "to the severity of that justice which deprived the age of one of its greatest ornaments, and Southampton, Shakespeare's patron, of his dearest friend."

2 Ow'd, i. e. owned, possessed.

We cannot construe the disposition of the mind by the lineaments of the face. In Shakespeare's ninety-third Sonnet we have a contrary assertion :

"In many's looks the false heart's history

Is writ."

It has been proposed to read, " Might have been more.” Safe toward your love and honour. Sir William Blackstone would read:-"Safe toward you love and honour; " which he explains thus:-"Our duties are your children, and servants or

Dun.

Welcome hither:

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing.-Noble Banquo.
That hast no less deserv'd, nor must be known
No less to have done so; let me enfold thee,
And hold thee to my heart.

Ban.

The harvest is your own.

Dun.

My plenteous joys,
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow".—Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
And you whose places are the nearest, know,
We will establish our estate upon

Our eldest, Malcolm; whom we name hereafter, The prince of Cumberland': which honour must vassals to your throne and state; who do but what they should, by doing everything with a saving of their love and honour toward you." He says that it has reference to the old feudal simple homage, which when done to a subject was always accompanied with a saving clause-" saulf le foy que jeo doy a nostre seignor le roy;" which he thinks suits well with the situation of Macbeth, now beginning to waver in his allegiance.

6 In drops of sorrow.

Lachrymas non sponte cadentes

Effudit, gemitusque expressit pectore læto;
Non aliter manifesta potens abscondere mentis
Gaudia, quam lachrymis."

It is

Lucan, lib. ix. The same sentiment again occurs in The Winter's Tale. likewise employed in the first scene of Much Ado about Nothing.

7 Holinshed says, "Duncan having two sons, &c. he made the elder of them, called Malcolm, prince of Cumberland, as it was thereby to appoint him his successor in his kingdome immediatelie after his decease, Macbeth sorely troubled herewith, for that he saw by this means his hope sore hindered (where, by the old laws of the realme the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were not of able age to take the charge upon himself, he that was next of blood unto him should be admitted), he began to take counsel how he might usurpe the kingdome by force, having a just quarrel so to doe (as he tooke the matter) for that Duncane did what in him lay to defraud him of all manner of title and claime, which he might in time to come pretend, unto the crowne." Cumberland was anciently held as a fief of the English crown.

Not, unaccompanied, invest him only,

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,

And bind us further to you.

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not us'd for you: I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful

The hearing of my wife with your approach;
So, humbly take my leave.

Dun.

My worthy Cawdor! Macb. The prince of Cumberland!—That is a step, On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, [Aside. For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires : The eye wink at the hand! yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. Dun. True, worthy Banquo; he is full so valiant8; And in his commendations I am fed ;

It is a banquet to me.

Let's after him,

Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome :

It is a peerless kinsman.

[Flourish. Exeunt.

SCENE V. Inverness. A Room in Macbeth's Castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a Letter.

Lady M. They met me in the day of success; and I have learn'd by the perfect'st report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burnt in desire to question them further, they made themselves -air, into which they vanish'd. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives1 from the king,

True, worthy Banquo, &c. We must imagine that while Macbeth was uttering the six preceding lines, Duncan and Banquo had been conferring apart. Macbeth's conduct appears to have been their subject; and to some encomium supposed to have been bestowed on him by Banquo, the reply of Duncan refers. 1 Missives, i. e. messengers.